<![CDATA[
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
It all started in Besancon, a town in Eastern France. It began with a brass band on a barge, with four of the founding members of the company. With clowning and circus skills, and juggling techniques learned from a children's book.
In 1980, all those who were to create the Cirque Plume 3 years later, took part with various companies in the famous festival called "La falaise des fous" (the Cliff of the Fools), founder of the movement that was to bring a renewal to street performing. For three years, and under different names, we went on to create street shows, already mixing music with circus skills, tall stories, theatre and dance, performing at county fairs, in public places and in small theatres. As we passed the hat around, our heads were full of the nomadic romanticism of "La Strada" and "Capitaine Fracasse".
At the end of 1983, we created a circus show called "Amour, jonglage et falbalas", which brought together all our acquired skills and know-how.
We had just opened the chests and coffers of the circus. Within there, lay a treasure.
1984 –1990
The year 1984 began with a meeting in which Bernard Kudlak proposed to create a circus - a project that would bring together our festive mood, our politics, our dreams, our bodies, our fraternal longing for something non-violent and popular. The Cirque Plume.
The outline of the performing tour already existed. Our show was amateur, fragile and innocent. Half of the troupe had jobs on the side, the other half was full time. Quickly, we felt the need to get involved with "real circus folks" and hired the first performer outside the group of founders, a tightrope walker.
We soon received a grant from the Regional Council.
We became producers, assemblers, drivers, bill-boarders, administrators, grant writers, show hosts, circus teachers, lighting engineers, stage directors, musicians and circus artists. For the cooking, we set up a kitchen rotation. Two toddlers and a few dogs came on tour with us.
In 1986, our participation in the Avignon "Off" Festival established our entry into the circle of recognized professional companies. Two years later, at the same festival, we had our big-top raised by a specialist crew. That day, we kept to our campers, dying with shame, peeping through the windows, encumbered with our empty arms and our dizzy heads.
We were soon to get over it.
In 1988, we hired an administrator and created a new show called "Spectacle de Cirque et de Merveilles" which was performed all over France. We also performed in Tunisia, Morocco, Belgium and Switzerland.
We started paying ourselves regular salaries. Robert Miny began writing original music for our shows.
In Paris, the national press was talking about us.
We decide to drop street performances and dedicate ourselves entirely to big-top shows.
In 1990, we were awarded the "Grand prix national du Cirque" by the Minister of Arts and Culture. With 20 permanent folks, the company was now run as a limited company, of which the partners were 8 of the founding members.
Then came the mature years.
1990 – 1998
The idea of a new circus form had taken a good hold by 1990. We started getting away from the traditional circus structure which had been the basis of our first shows to give expression to our own style. Our dream was coming true: we were attracting spectators of all types while maintaining a high artistic level in a spirit of public education.
It was autumn 1990. We rehearsed our "Creation 90" at Meylan, in the French Alps, under a newly bought 850 seats blue big-top. The notion of authorship changed.
We moved from a collective creation approach to a personal project, written by Bernard Kudlak with the help of Vincent Filliozat. The proportion of outside artists became greater.
We presented "No Animo Mas Anima" in Paris at the Parc de La Villette. We were now playing in the major league.
Buyers in France and abroad wanted to book us, the press was enthusiastic, we were in fantastic from.
So everything was hunky-dory?
No. We had spent three million francs in this operation and only earned two!
What do you do in a situation like that? Close shop or expect a miracle… And what do you know : the miracle happened.
In the form of a commission from the Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy, for a Christmas show which would play to 240,000 spectators over 10 days. This convinced the banks to lend us enough to keep us going.
We had to give more structure to our growing business without abandoning our deepest wishes.
1993 saw the creation of "Toiles". Bernard received a grant from the "Foundation Beaumarchais" for writing the show and Robert's music was commissioned by the State.
The show was a success at La Villette (Paris).
In August 1994, "Les Plume font leur Cirque", a sensitive documentary by Christophe De Ponfilly, was shown on TV at prime time. 1 555 000 television viewers heard about the Cirque Plume.
We were delighted.
Fourteen children were born in 1995, and we created a second version of "Toiles": the women were having babies, and we had to change the show. Some performers got injured while others got weary. We ended the tour ("Toiles 2") with some new-comers. Notwithstanding, the troupe is remarkably stable.
It was with "Toiles"(350 shows to 265.000 spectators) that the European festivals opened their doors to us (Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden …).
We created "L'harmonie est-elle municipale ?" at Salins-les-Bains, in the Jura, in June 1996, in a big, yellow, brand new, 1000 seat big-top, an original prototype made to our specifications. The artistic and technical investments were in keeping with our ambitions. Bernard did not perform in this show which he wrote and directed : a brass-band of 6 men meet a group of 6 women who live within the space of the big-top. As one tableau gave way to the next, they seek endlessly for happiness, harmony...
The official first performance took place in Munich, and we set out on two and a half years of touring. The critics praised the show and the spectators came in crowd to the big-top.
We put on the last performance of "L'harmonie est-elle municipale ?" in Lyon in December 1998 after having performed 278 times to 250.000 spectators.
At the same time, Bernard directed in 1997, in a "small form", after Victor Hugo, "La plume de Satan", and in 1998, he got to work again, with Robert for the music, on the "Jongleur de l'arc-en-ciel" which became an opera for 3, a soprano, a tenor, children's choirs and orchestra, created at the Palais des festivals de Cannes and at the Opera de Nice in June of the same year.
"Mélanges (opera plume)" : a new chapter in our history opened during the first semester of 1999, during rehearsals at Salins-les-Bains.
In Paris-La Villette, our big-top braved the tornado of the 26th December.
The tour is rich : Many towns in France, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, and for the first time The United States and Italy in 2001.
We meet artistes today who say they began learning circus skills after seeing our shows, as children. We are presently a team of 45 people and 6 of the 9 artists who were there at the origin of the Cirque Plume are still in the show today.
</body>
]]>